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December 2002 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Tesco Plc.

Tesco, a supermarket chain, has been transformed from a third-rate retailer to a global leader in the past ten years. This case describes how that was accomplished. Interviews with Tesco employees explain the company's approach to understanding customers, motivating... View Details

Keywords: History; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Internet and the Web; Supply Chain Management; Global Strategy; Globalization; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business Strategy; Retail Industry

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21 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

It Matters That Your CEO Doesn't Know Much About Sales

more specialists are needed to stay up to date with functional best practices. The problem that this influx of specialists creates, Cespedes says, is that fewer senior executives are responsible for integrating activities across the multiple activities that determine... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

15 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Going Green Makes Good Business Sense

Star-Kist was under fire because its fishing practices for tuna in the eastern tropical Pacific involved accidental deaths of many dolphins, since tuna typically swim under schools of dolphins. Preliminary marketing research confirmed that View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Web

Designing Technology Ventures - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Designing Technology Ventures Course Number 5240 Professor Thomas Eisenmann Robert Howe Fall; Q1Q2; 3.0 credits Course Description Launching a successful startup requires a business model that defines the venture’s View Details

25 Feb 2020
News

Case Study: The Credit Bureau

young professionals) select pieces from curated collections on the company’s website—think Scandinavian, mid-century modern, or industrial looks. Within a week, a white-glove team delivers preassembled pieces and arranges the room. When the lease is up, the View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Real Estate

Forthcoming
Article

From Bupkis to Sechel in Health Care

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Richard Boxer

Fifty years ago, famed economist Milton Friedman declared that “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” This free market manifesto was adopted by the healthcare industry as well. But transactional has evolved into transformational with the... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Accountability; Customer Focus and Relationships; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health Industry

Citation

October 2010
Case

Dubai Duty Free

By: Rajiv Lal and David Kiron

In mid-February 2009, Dubai Duty Free Managing Director Colm McLoughlin received the January sales report. He left the report lying on his desk unopened and went to walk around the shops as he did every morning. When he returned, he sat down at his desk, looked at the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Marketing Strategy; Emerging Markets; Value Creation; Retail Industry; Dubai

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01 Jun 2018
News

The Evolution of Modern Pricing Models

necessarily beneficial for e-commerce vendors. What led you to make that argument? TT: Amazon has been a leader in the idea of reducing friction in shopping. One click, you’ve bought your books. So other companies also wanted to reduce the effort for View Details

01 Jun 2016
News

Up by the Roots

brought its own challenges. Ginseng is a notoriously labor-intensive crop: Plants can take four to five years to mature, all of the seeds are picked by hand, and most of the harvesting is manual. All machinery is customized from other... View Details

Keywords: Francis Storrs

02 Aug 2024
HBS Case

How a Mission to Cut Food Waste Launched a Multimillion-Dollar Venture

entrepreneur’s Flashfood app at a Toronto supermarket hadn’t gone well, ending with confusion among customers and ire from the store manager. But Domingues, who had launched the app after learning that international food waste was the... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Technology; Information Technology

01 Jun 2016
News

How Do I Get Your Job?

units a year, but back when volumes were small, one full container of product would be everything I would have to sell for a quarter. And I had an entire container of goods that came damaged. I had to call up the customers who I fought so... View Details

Keywords: April White

01 Jun 2010
News

Green Dreams: Eco-Friendly Countertops

company’s product throughout its Seattle headquarters. Other customers include NASA, the Ritz-Carlton, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Amazon, Disney’s Epcot theme park, and Google. IceStone has come a long way since Magagnini’s dark day, and not... View Details

Keywords: Sarah Auerbach; Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

August 1998 (Revised October 1998)
Background Note

Note on Lead User Research

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Describes the Lead User concept and method (step-by-step) with brief examples from industrial practice. View Details

Keywords: Customers; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth

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30 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Why Evolutionary Software Development Works

development was evolutionary in nature. Companies first would release a low-functionality version of a product to selected customers at a very early stage of development. Thereafter work would proceed in an iterative fashion, with the... View Details

Keywords: by Alan MacCormack; Technology

10 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Cable TV: From Community Antennas to Wired Cities

sets. To demonstrate the sets, he secured informal permission from his employer to string an electrical wire from a local hilltop to serve as an antenna for the reception of signals from Philadelphia stations. When customers who purchased... View Details

Keywords: by Thomas R. Eisenmann; Media & Broadcasting; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation

July 2002 (Revised August 2002)
Supplement

Australia-Japan Cable: Structuring the Project Company

By: Benjamin C. Esty

Spreadsheet to (9-203-024). Download only. View Details

Keywords: Projects; Customers; System; Capital; Competition; Investment Return; Risk and Uncertainty; Telecommunications Industry; Australia; Japan

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07 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 7

and the concentration of the certification industry. We also analyze the possibility that certifiers opt for a quick turnaround time at the expense of a lower accuracy. Finally, we investigate the opportunity of regulating transparency. Working Papers How Do View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

24 Apr 2014
News

Exploring new ways to understand and engage audiences

Victoria Ransom (MBA 2008) launched Wildfire Interactive, now a Google company, to connect companies and customers through social media. (Published April 2014) View Details

July–August 2016
Article

The Decoupling Effect of Digital Disruptors

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Peter Jamieson

A new wave of Internet startups is disrupting established businesses by the process of “decoupling.” In this article, the authors discuss how these new digital disruptors allow consumers to benefit from one activity (e.g., watching shows) without incurring the cost of... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Internet and the Web; Business Startups; Product Marketing; Customization and Personalization

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February 2014 (Revised August 2014)
Case

3D Systems

By: Karim R. Lakhani and David Lane

In late 2013, Rajeev Kulkarni needed to decide how best to facilitate the emergence of a broad base of users and content to promote the sale of 3D Systems' consumer-focused 3D printers. As yet, neither the company nor users had identified an indispensable application... View Details